The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-08-25
SEPTEMBER MAGAZINES.
Bundle of Literature in Which All Readers
May Find Something to Please

Il
Within the past year or two the Harpers have
devoted great deal of attention to the South
in their various periodicals. Its commercial in
terests. its social characteristics, its physical
features have been treated of in turn and over
again. Southern writer's have been encouraged
until large proportion of the fiction printed in
their pages comes from their pens. Local talent
not being sufficient. special writer's and artists
who shall illustrate the descriptive papers are
sent down to write up the country. Charles
Dudley Warner of the editorial staff of the
Monthly, having fulfilled his mission in this d.
rection, Rebecca Harding Davis is going
the ground and giving her impressions of
various points of interest with eoouence and
enthusiasm born of love of her subject ard the
fealty of a native. The descriptions of Southern
health resorts of untold benefit to those
places in the way of advertising; but perhaps
the profit is made mutual by the increase In the
circulation of the Magazine. So far the
tributions of the Southern writers are concerned
LITTLE criticism can be made. They are good in
the. way, and if the reader confesses to being
q little weary because their way is so much the
same and to be just trife tired of the cracker"
and the negro. perhaps the fault is with him
rather than with the author of the tales. In the
September number, however, Amelie Rives, the
newest star in this Southern galaxy, chooses a
topic from past century and gives some Old
time dialect a change from the too familiar
African lingo delightful first chapter OF
story by Miss Howard, the author of "One Sum-
mer, is entitled Tony, the Maid" Howells. in
his 'April Hopes" continues to narrate the
petty quarrels of his pair of common place lovers
in a way that may be realistic but is far from
entertaining to those who fEd life too short for
studying the work of greater artists. In the
Editors Study Howes again discourses upon
the realistic and imaginative elements in fiction
"a very Improbable subject for discussion at
any time and in his particularly so, since. being
a man devoid of Imagination himself he cannot
understand its workings in others. nor display
terest is a description of Chilli and its people by
w. E. Curtis, South American trav-
eler. The inhabitants of lower Siberia
H fas is0 sS D. sS'F'e single incident
in his experience among these nomads in sutf
Gent to destroy desire among ordinary travel
ers for intimate acquaintance with them
II was honored with an invitation to dine IN
one of these tents" says the writer. 'the dishes
being put before US according to our rank
heard nothing of grace before meat, but never
saw anything to exceed the aiacrity with which
the dishes cleared. Hands were knives
and fingers forks, the meat being torn
from the bones as by the teeth of hungry dogs.
It is considered polite for a kirehese superior to
take handful of pieces of meat and stuff them
into the mouth of an inferior guest, an elegancy
1 practised on another but from which.
mercifully, myself was excused"
The magazine opens with an account of the
ridin g-schools in New York and review of the
growth of horsemanship in the metropolis, in
Guiding description of the prevailing fashions
OF riding. Several of the articles mentioned are
An attractive article in the September Maya
zine Of Art is description of the London homo
of the journalist George Augustus Sala. He
is surrounded with luxury and ornament to a
degree rather unusual with q member of his
profession. Much of the brio a-bric and curios
with which his house is filed were collected dur
ing his travels about the world and aside from
their intrinsic value cherished on account of
associations The difference between the
binary admirer of works of art and the en-
thusiastc art lover is illustrated
by Richard Jeffries in his description of the
Venus Accronpie of the Louvre. This Venus is
a headess, armless figure in the STOPPING posi-
tion necessary for taking child "pick back"
The casual observer would see nothing in the
broken statue more than the fine lines of we'll
developed muscular female FORM but this
writer. when his eyes fell upon it, was instantly
transfixed and said to himself, THAT is nv
statue There lies all Paris for me; l shall
find nothing further" Having thus decided he
abandons himself to rhapsody He sees not
merely a STOPPING woman, but to him there, in
full existence. visible, tangible. seems to be all
that the heart hasimasined of the deepest and
highest emotions. She stoops to please the
children, that they may climb her back; the
whole of her body speaks the dearest. the purest
love. To extend the hands towards her is
natural it is difficult to avoid actually doing so.
A heart beats within her bosom; she is love; with
her neither gold nor applause has anything to
do: she thinks of the children. In that length of
back and width of chest, in that strong torso.
there is just the least trace of manliness. She
s not all, not too. feminine; with all her tender
ness, she can think and act nobly a man."
etc. etc for several columns. This is all be-
yond the comprehension of the commonplace.
every day reader sightseer and he can only
wonder and feel little amused
In the September Atlantic Oliver Wendell
Holmes draws near the close of his Hundred
Days in Europe" and the narrative takes on a
pathetic tinge it treats of his visit to the
places which were familiar to him more than
half century ago. Some of the old landmarks
were there, but of the faces; the young
men who were his comrades in those student
days were all gone and had left no trace; he was
the '1ast leaf" fluttering that way before reach
ing final resting place. The two serial stories,
paul Patoff by F. Marion Crawford, reach this
climax in this number. Both good stories,
natural desire of the reader, familiar with their
styles of the two authors, to detect the joining
of their work-a feat, however. which is not cas-
lily accomplished. paul Patof" will, perhaps,
rank in popularity with the writer's first novel,
''Mr. 1saacs," the adventures as in that unique
work, being of most unusual char
aesT john basa Es
shows how he succeeded in rendering himself SO
popular France after the revolution. ''Le
Roi Marque" is an account by Ellen Terry John
son of the Duke of Burgundy the Inflated son
of Louis XIV. No magazine is complete nova
days without a sketch in negro dialect, and this
is furnished by A. L. GorCon In the "PlnchtoWn |
Pauper," touching tale of Southern low life.
This inevitable Russian article is account of |
journey in that country by Edmund Noble. "A
Woodland Intimate" by Bradford TORY, is
one of those semi-scientific, semi sentimental |
bird studies. the like of which is found only in
the Atlantic Monthly, and might be contributed |
by any one of half dozen writers, John Bur |
roughs and Olive Thorne Miller among the rest. |
The two ''solid" articles Of this issue IA |
Study of Early Eeotism." by Elizabeth Robins
Pennell. and 1.-THE Soul of the Far East, by |
Perciyal Lowell. The latter article is the first |
of series
Some noticeable changes have been made in |
Godey's Ladys Book by Mrs. Croly denny June) |
since she took it in hand. Fiction is almost |
and the space is occupied by discus |
sions on the industrial training of girls, bio
graphical sketches of famous women and the |
rin hold foe d.